“I doubt your blood is all red any more, but yes. It’s a blood substitute.”

“Why a substitute?”

“Simply put, we did some experiments that went horribly wrong. We experimented on the earth, the air, the plants, the animals. And somehow the planet got angry with us about it. We always though we’d kill off the planet with our industry, but instead the planet fought back. Cities were consumed by forests. Predators grew larger and more intelligent. Even the plants tried to kill us if we went outside. So we adapted. We made our bodies stronger, faster, more resilient. But in the end it wasn’t enough. Nature was going to win. So we felt the best way to deal with it was to go back in time and prevent it from happening.”

“Go… back in time?” Irian drank more. “I need more of this, I’m not drunk yet. I just heard you say you travelled through time.”

“Well, we thought we did. But nothing’s lining up. There’s so much familiar, and so much that doesn’t seem right. Like the dragon.”

“Lot of ’em.”

“As you said. Well, when we got here, we decided we’d make it a one-way trip and take over.”

“How perfectly officious of you.”

“I wasn’t even born yet when that decision was made. And my father opposed it. I simply knew that wen we came through that I went from a life of ease into a life of hardship, and I wanted to go back. However, this world has plenty to speak for it, and I’ve finally decided my father was right. If we ruined our world, so be it. This one isn’t ours.”

“Ever thought about sharing?”

“Funny that, that’s the problem with the Harvest. They think they’re better than you, so they’re not interested in sharing. They just want to take, take, take. They’ll do this world like they did the last.”